DAVIDS KINGDOM A MYTH?

(MAUREEN BAARDE FLORES)

Ever since I was a child, I heard great stories about King David, the second chosen King of Israel by Jehovah. He was portrayed by famous artists like Donatello and Michelangelo as a handsome young warrior, and by Agassi as a handsome strong man in action. It never came to my mind that behind his story lays some controversy. There have been dispute whether David really existed or not, and if his glorious kingdom was just a little cow town. These issues sparked my curiosity even though I was told by many not to entertain such kind of thoughts. In 2005, a young female archeologist, Eilat Mazar, claimed that she discovered the House of David, an empire, according to the Bible in the Old Testament, established under King David and continued by his son Solomon, the wisest king of Israel. Such claim made by Mazar looked questionable to some of her fellow Israeli archaeologist like David Ilan who said that the discovered building was constructed a hundred years or more after Solomons death. Not only did he question Mazars discovery, there are also critics who have been and are questioning her motives; they criticized her for her allegiance to the antiquated method the use of the Bible as a tool in her quest. For critics this kind of method is considered unscientific. Despite the controversy, the Bible quest did not stop there. There are two archeologists, Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Professor Thomas Levy, who have unveiled remarkable finds. Professor Grafinkel claimed he had discovered the first corner of a Judean city under Davids reigned while Professor Levy excavated the mass metal production at Khirbat en Nahas which probably belonged to David and Solomon, and he unearthed two gates of the fortified city and artifacts dating to Davids time, around 1000 B.C. Can this silence the critics? Even before the discovery of the house of David, the two gates, artifacts, etc. there was a movement of biblical minimalists who believed that David and Solomon were fictitious characters. To them, there was no evidence or proof that showed they really existed in the past; however, in 1993 the credibility of such a position was undercut when an excavation team discovered a black basalt stela inscribed with the phrase House of David. Now, if these latest discoveries of Professor Garfinkel and most especially of Professor Levy show at least 90% of credibility, there will be few disputes, and the story of David will be vindicated as an accurate account. The question is how much digging is needed to settle this argument? Fictitious or not, David is extremely important for Israelis or Jewish cultural identity, and you cannot stop foreigners even locals to come and visit the Holy City of Jerusalem. As for me, even though I have my religion, it doesnt mean I cannot entertain myself with this kind of topic. For me, I consider this kind of argument as a healthy exchange of academic knowledge.